Secret of the Monument
by MOMO1
Summary: There's something weird about that monument in Altimira. Presea uncovers the secret it hides.
1. Chapter 1

After a night of fun in the city of Altimira, Lloyd and his friends were getting ready to go to bed in their hotel room. Lloyd, Sheena, Raine, and Regal fell asleep quickly, but the others were still hyper after seeing that play about the Katz. Genis and Colette talked excitedly about what happened in the performance. 

"I'm going back out to… uh… I'll just be going." declared Zelos as he walked out the door with a devious look on his face. Genis and Colette watched Zelos as he exited the room. Presea, standing on the balcony, looked off into the distance and ignored him.

"Well, I'm starting to get tired now." Genis said, "I'm going to bed… Presea, are you alright?" Genis looked at Presea as she stared at the starry sky. She had a sorrowful expression on her face and seemed to be in a sort of trance.

"Presea?" Colette asked. Presea looked toward Genis and Colette.

"OH! I-I'm sorry. I zoned out a little there." Presea stuttered.

"Are you alright?" Genis repeated.

"Uh… yes. Yes I am." Presea answered.

"What is it? Were you thinking about someone?" Colette guessed.

"No… not exactly." Presea uttered.

"You don't have to tell us what you were thinking about if you don't want to." Genis proclaimed.

"That's ok, Genis. I… think that I'll take a walk in the hotel for a while." Presea said with a tone of unease in her voice. She advanced toward the doorway.

"Are you sure you don't want me… err, one of us to go with you?" Genis questioned.

"No. I'll be fine." Presea said. She left the room and shut the door behind her. There was a moment of silence.

"She'll be fine." Colette assured. She had gone off on her own like that many times herself.

"I hope so." Genis stated. He ran to the balcony and stopped to look at the stars. Genis wondered what had made Presea so apprehensive.

Presea went outside the hotel and saw Zelos talking to two women in bunny girl costumes out front. 

"You're such a tease!" one of the girls bellowed. The three of them laughed.

"Don't worry, girls! There's enough of me to go around!" Zelos remarked. Presea looked away from the sight and sighed. She walked past Zelos and the giggling girls to go to the monument where the group had met George.

Actually, Colette was right. She was thinking about someone… but for now she would try to think of something other than that particular person. She looked at the monument before her and remembered something. There was a question that was bothering her for quite a long time, and Presea decided to investigate it right then and there.

Presea thought that there was something strange about the monument. Ever since the first time she laid eyes on it the thing seemed suspicious. She kneeled beside it and tapped the front of it with her finger. Suddenly the monument moved backwards and fell over.

_'Maybe I tapped it a little too hard. Sometimes I don't know my own strength.' _Presea thought. She looked at the pedestal that the monument had sat on and was shocked to see a stairway leading into the ground.

_'So the monument is some type of doorway.'_ Presea pondered. The doorway seemed so inviting, and everyone else was either asleep or 'busy'. Not thinking too long on it, Presea decided to go inside and investigate alone. For reasons unknown, Presea felt that she must enter the secret passageway. She descended into the darkness below with her axe in hand.

A long hallway stretched forward at the bottom of the stairs. The walls of the hall were lined with torches. Presea could hear the sound of dripping water coming from further down the hall. The stuffy passage smelled of charred wood and smoke… a smell that reminded Presea of her childhood home in Ozette.

_'The lit torches must mean that someone has been here recently or that they are still here.'_ Presea concluded as she carefully tiptoed down the corridor. At the end of the hallway was a metal door.

_'Maybe I should go back.'_ Presea considered. It did feel awkward exploring a secret cavern alone in the middle of the night. She turned around and saw a wall blocking her path back. At first she theorized as to how the wall got there, but soon became fearful.

_'That is definitely not a good thing.'_ Presea worried. She bashed at the wall with her axe.

_'No good. It appears that I am trapped here for now. However, there may be a way out further in.'_ Presea turned toward the brass door and reached for the handle.


	2. Chapter 2

When Presea opened the door she was greeted by an extraordinary sight. She entered a large chamber with tile walls and a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Her eyes looked upward at a gigantic golem made of rock sitting in the room's center. The golem's head turned and looked down at the tiny little girl.

The golem was at least eight times the height of Presea. It held a massive axe in its right hand, and it swung the axe's blade at Presea. She dodged the attack and jumped back away from the golem. Presea swung her axe at the golem's belly.

'_It could take all of the energy I have to take this thing down.'_ Presea thought. Her blow did not seem to affect the golem at all. It drew it's axe into the air and prepared to swing at her a second time.

"Ineffective." Presea mumbled. She avoided the golem's next blow and looked for a weak point on the creature's body. The stone body of the golem seemed to be resistant to everything that Presea did to it with her axe. The golem's axe went up in the air and came down again… this time hitting Presea's left leg.

Presea fell on the ground as blood came gushing out from the wound on her leg. She attempted to stand, but fell back to the ground. Presea crawled while dragging her leg across the floor toward the door that she had originally entered the room from. Her right hand reached for the door's handle as her left hand applied pressure to her wound. The door was locked.

The golem raised it's axe once more. Presea looked up as the axe began swiftly descending toward her… and she closed her eyes.

'_Is this really… the end?'_

The axe came down.

Presea held her axe up and deflected the blow. She looked at the golem with a look of fierceness in her eyes. She pointed the tip of her axe toward the direction of the golem's head.

"I will not lose to you!" she shouted. Presea then used her axe as a shield and hid behind it as she looked in the satchel on her belt. She searched for a Lemon Gel while the golem raised it's axe again.

_'Where is it?'_ Presea thought as she cursed herself for not putting her Lemon Gels in the top of the pouch. Finally, she found a one and used it on her damaged left leg. The golem yet again brought the axe downward. Presea grabbed her axe's handle and was ready to fight again.

With her leg healed, Presea was able to avoid the attack by running to the right and jumping into the air. To her own surprise, she landed on the golem's wrist as the arm went up. She ran up the golem's arm and struck at the golem's head repeatedly with her axe. The golem fell onto it's back as Presea kept hitting the head over and over.

"Die!" Presea yelled. The golem used it's free hand to swat at Presea. She jumped backward onto the stone creature's belly to avoid the hand. It accidentally hit itself in the face, and in doing so crushed it's face. The head of the golem burst inward and seemed to implode on itself… the excess rock falling to the ground. The body began to crack as well.

Presea hopped off of the golem's body as it began to crumble and watched the sight of the golem's demise from a distance. She soon heard the sound of coughing coming from within the rubble of the disintegrating body. Presea looked into the pile of rocks and dust before her and gasped.

_'A… person? There was someone inside of that thing?'_


	3. Chapter 3

"Presea? What happened?" asked the familiar voice of a young half elf boy.

Presea turned around and saw Genis, Colette, and Zelos come in through the door that she found to be locked earlier. She stared at them with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Genis, why are you all here?" Presea questioned.

"What do you mean why? We were worried about you!" Genis replied in a concerned tone.

"When Zelos came back, he told us that you were by the monument. Genis went to check and saw a doorway leading into the ground. He came and told us about it and we decided to follow you." Colette answered with a bright smile. The smile made Presea feel more relaxed in their presence.

"I came along because I was also worried about you, my little rosebud." Zelos chimed, "The great Zelos is here to aid you. There is no more reason for you to be afraid."

"We practically had to drag you here. You wanted to stay with you 'hunnies.'" Genis sneered.

"Uh… umm… well…" Zelos stuttered.

"I was… afraid. I was alone and afraid. Thank you for coming for me. All of you." Presea said with a shy smile. Genis smiled back at her. He began to say something, but Zelos interrupted him.

"That's all well and good, but the door locked behind us. How are we supposed to get out of here?" Zelos pondered as he tried to open the door they had come through. It had locked itself again.

"Uh… guys…" Colette said. She looked at something that was behind Presea.

"What is it, Colette?" Genis asked. He followed Colette's line of vision and turned to look. Seeing the shocked look on their faces, Presea turned around. She now remembered that someone had been inside the golem and was curious to see who it was.

"George? What is going on?" Presea asked. George was brushing dust off of his outfit and climbing out from the remains of the golem. He jumped down from the rubble and stood before our four confused heroes.

"Forgive me." George began, "Please believe me, Presea. I did not realize that it was you who the golem was fighting."

"You fought a golem?" Genis wondered. Presea nodded in response.

"You see… this cavern is a secret testing facility for some of the Lezereno company's more… destructive products. I have yet to show the golem to master Regal because it is still having a few bugs taken care of." George explained.

"So the golem was one of the company's new tools?" Colette asked George.

"That's exactly what I am saying. I am glad that Presea wasn't killed, but now we have to start over from scratch on the project." George said sadly.

"It could have KILLED her!" Genis yelled.

"It could have, but it didn't." George replied, "Presea showed a great display of skill, thoughtfulness, and determination when she defeated it. The golem was supposed to be an indestructible mining tool."

"Indestructible?" Colette inquired.

"Yes. We wanted it to be able to withstand cave-ins and rockslides."

"Yeah, but don't you think the golem was a little _too_ dangerous? " Zelos asked, "I mean… what if this 'indestructible' golem fell into the wrong hands?"

"We were working on that issue. No one even knows about it right now except a few key executives and you four." George proclaimed.

"I think it's a bad idea." Genis announced, "An indestructible mining machine that could kill people shouldn't even exist."

"I agree with Genis." Colette proclaimed, "Tools like that shouldn't exist."

"You do not want to know about the company's other projects in development then." George sighed, "There are some projects that would make the golem look like a child's plaything. The secret of the monument is only one of many private projects we have."


	4. Chapter 4

George disabled all of the traps left behind that were meant to keep intruders from leaving the underground cavern with top secret company information. Afterward, he, Presea, Genis, Colette, and Zelos left the cavern behind. The four heroes agreed to keep George's cavern a secret. In return, George had to promise them that he would never make a golem-like device ever again or let anyone else take over his research. He agreed to these terms and the four of them went back to their hotel room.

When they got back to the room, Regal was awake and doing his morning training routine. He stopped in the middle of kicking at the air and looked at them when they came in.

"Hey there. Having fun?" Zelos asked.

"I am always up at this time in the morning." Regal replied, "I'll admit that I am surprised to see all of you up this early."

"We were… umm…" Colette began.

"Uh… we were taking a walk. It was so nice outside and… well…" Genis lied.

"I hope that you didn't get too wet." Regal said.

"Wet?" Colette asked.

"It was raining earlier." Regal stated, "But now that I look at you, all four of you are dry." Regal rubbed his chin with one hand as he thought.

"Where we were is our own business." Zelos yawned, "Now the Great Zelos needs some shut eye. Catch you later." Zelos jumped into to the nearest empty bed and promptly went to sleep. Regal shrugged his shoulders and returned to his training routine. Colette lied down on a bed and soon fell asleep.

Presea walked out to the balcony and looked up at the sky again. Genis followed her out.

"Are you alright, Presea?" Genis asked. Presea looked at him with her head tilted to one side.

"I am." she replied in a depressed voice.

"You don't sound ok." Genis noticed, "You sound sad." Presea sighed and looked back toward the sky.

"If something's wrong, you can tell me." Genis coaxed.

"I… Colette was right." Presea sighed.

"What was she right about?"  
"I was thinking earlier… about Alicia."

"Oh." Genis said, "Uh… well…"  
"When she first went to work for… Regal… she sent me a letter. In the letter, Alicia told me about the city she moved to. She mentioned that in the city there was a special place. She would go to this place when she needed to be alone. It made her feel… happy."

"That sounds like a great place."

"I thought so too. That's why I wanted to see it for myself."

"It was it the monument?" Genis asked, "Is that why you went to look at it by yourself?"

"Yes." Presea replied, "She said the monument had a secret. The secret of the monument was that just being near it made her feel more at ease with the world."

"Presea… so that's why…"

"I wanted to go to her special place. I wanted it to make me feel happy like it had made her happy. But all I found was a stone golem. All I found… was despair."

"That's not true!" Genis exclaimed. Presea turned toward Genis and looked him in the eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"When we came in, you said that you were glad we had come. You even smiled, Presea."

"You… have a point."

"I think that you did find happiness at the monument. Not in the same way that your sister did, but in your own unique way." Presea smiled slightly as she thought about what Genis had said. When he saw that he had made her feel better, Genis also smiled. There was a moment of silence.

"So… the secret is different for each individual?" Presea questioned.

"I guess it is." Genis responded. There was more silence.

"I'm tired." Presea muttered.

"So am I." Genis said, "Maybe we should go to sleep. Let's go in."

With that, they went back into the hotel room and fell asleep. In a few hours, they would have to wake up and face another day full of new mysteries and adventures.


End file.
